Calorie Advice on Menus Might Not Help People Eat Better

WebMD News Archive

Customers may resist doing the math with every meal, study author says

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- Making general calorie consumption guidelines available to patrons of restaurants where calorie count labels are already on the menu does not lead to better food choices, new research cautions.

"The general inability of calorie labeling to result in an overall reduction in the number of calories consumed has already been pretty widely shown," said study lead author Julie Downs. "So that's nothing new. But in the face of that, there has been the growing thought that perhaps the problem is that people don't know how to use the information without some framework, some guidance," she explained.

"So what we tested is whether we could improve food purchasing behavior by offering people general daily or per-meal calorie guidelines alongside food labeling in restaurants. But we found it didn't help at all," she said.

Downs, an associate research professor of social and decision sciences in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, and colleagues report their findings in the July 18 online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

In recent years various cities and counties -- including New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and King County, Wash. -- have mandated calorie-posting on chain restaurant menus, as have entire states such as California and Oregon, according to the study. Going forward, some form of national calorie labeling is set to kick in as part of the unfurling federal health care reform already passed by Congress.

Against that backdrop, for four months in 2008, the authors set out to provide standardized calorie recommendation information to more than 1,100 consumers aged 18 and up just before they purchased food at one of two N.Y.C.-based McDonald's restaurants, one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.

The information offered was gleaned from calorie policy set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National School Lunch Act. Half of the study took place just before the city implemented standardized calorie labeling on restaurant menus, half after.

Participating consumers were randomly given either: material recommending a total daily consumption of 2,000 calories for women and 2,400 calories for men; material apprising them that a single meal should contain between 650 and 800 calories; or no information at all.

Thank you for submitting your response.

Good to Know is a new feature that allows members of the community to answer questions from WebMD experts, doctors, staff, and other community members. We're testing this new feature and we'd like your feedback.

Healthy Recipe Finder

Browse our collection of healthy, delicious recipes, from WebMD and Eating Well magazine.